New Photos Released From Rosetta Comet Landing Mission

The Philae lander took this photo of the cliff blocking its sunlight. The image reveals fractures in the rock; the glare is the reflection of the spacecraft.

This graphic shows Philae's orientation on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. It's on its side, with one leg wedged into a rock.

Philae's initial landing was more like a bounce, making its first post-landing picture a bit blurry.

This image of the comet from Dec. 16 is one of the most recent taken by Rosetta.

This color image of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, released last week, shows what the comet would look like to your eyes. Surprise! It's greyish. The picture was made by combining images taken with red, blue, and green filters.

Share

New Photos Released From Rosetta Comet Landing Mission

The Philae lander took this photo of the cliff blocking its sunlight. The image reveals fractures in the rock; the glare is the reflection of the spacecraft.

This graphic shows Philae's orientation on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. It's on its side, with one leg wedged into a rock.

Philae's initial landing was more like a bounce, making its first post-landing picture a bit blurry.

This image of the comet from Dec. 16 is one of the most recent taken by Rosetta.

This color image of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, released last week, shows what the comet would look like to your eyes. Surprise! It's greyish. The picture was made by combining images taken with red, blue, and green filters.

SAN FRANCISCO—The Rosetta mission to comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko has released more images of the comet, including the first picture snapped by the Philae lander after its first bounce. The team discussed the images today, here at the American Geophysical Union meeting.

As the Rosetta orbiter enters the main science phase of its mission, Philae remains in hibernation under the shadow of a cliff—stuck sideways with one of its three legs wedged in a rock. There are six hours of daylight on the comet, but because of the cliff's shadow, Philae's only receiving four and a half hours. By February or March, the lander should receive enough sunlight shining at more direct angles to power it up. Although it looks like Philae will be able to survive the bitter cold until then, no one knows exactly when that will be.

Rosetta's OSIRIS camera has taken even more photos of the comet, but because the spacecraft is currently trying to download so much data, mission scientists have to wait to see them. They hope the images will reveal Philae's exact location and enable them to better estimate when it might wake up. They should get the pictures within a few days, says Rosetta project scientists Matt Taylor, and then the team can start scouring them for signs of Philae.